Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Seven
Fifteen years earlier…
T he wolves chase me. I do not like to run from a challenge, but three mature wolf shifters, even if my death is not on their minds, will punish me severely for trespassing on their land.
I consider stopping anyway, but it will be hard to save my Fawn if I accidentally die.
So I run all the way to the border with the bear shifters and onto their lands.
The wolves continue to chase me a short way before turning back.
Committed now, there is only one way for me to go. I run through the bear’s turf, evading patrols and never stopping for many days and nights until, nearing exhaustion, I reach the safety of my home territory.
“Hail, Seven!” I am greeted by a patrol soon after entering our lands.
It offers a boost to my flagging reserves, and I continue on to the palace, where my father, already forewarned of my return, waits for me in the throne room.
My legs are shaking with fatigue as I bow before him.
“Shift, son,” he commands, stepping down from his throne to join me.
I have not been in human form since I saw my little Fawn, and my wasted body protests the lack of nourishment.
His smile is rueful as he pours a cup of water from the pitcher resting on the nearby table and passes it to me. “You have been gone for some time.”
I gulp the water down, aware that he is waiting for my news. No stag returns without completing his quest, which is different for everyone. In each case, they return to the king and share what they have done or learned. Only the young stag can decide when he is worthy when he feels through deed or new knowledge that he is now a man.
“I traveled through the bear shifter land and onto Oberian lands, where I met the subject of my next quest,” I announce.
He chuckles, giving me an up-down look. “Most stags consider surviving a night on enemy land challenging enough. You have been a week in enemy lands. Now you come back and announce you must accomplish a second quest?”
I shrug. I had not thought the matter through in detail. Maybe it is forward of me to presume a second quest.
“I found a fawn living among the Oberian pack, playing alone. She shifted to human and seemed curious about me. A wolf shifter—her father, I presume—found us talking and snatched her protectively to his arms, and in a way that made me certain her nature was being kept hidden. He must have hailed his pack. More wolves arrived on the scene and chased me off their lands and into the bear shifters’ territory. I made sure they did not catch me.”
My father rubs his jaw thoughtfully before he calls a servant standing discreetly by the doors to bring food to his study.
“Come, son. I best feed you before you collapse, for this is not a quick tale.”
As I sit and eat, he tells me a story about a young doe falling in love with a wolf. “It was one of the lower herds,” he says. “The leader’s son fancied himself in love with the doe. Foolishly, his father tried to separate her from the wolf mate, but a bond had already been made. The doe and wolf fled. When I found out. I ordered a search, offering a place for them among our herd in safety. It was too late. They were never found. It would seem likely they were living secretly in this wolf pack ever since.”
“We need to bring them back.”
When he shakes his head, my chest heaves, and I surge up.
My father places his hand on my shoulder and urges me back down. My legs are shaking, so it takes only a small amount of pressure to get me seated.
“We betrayed their trust,” he says.
“Not us,” I say.
“No, not us, but a former herd leader and his jealous son. I would not force them to return.”
“They are not safe,” I say quietly. “A fawn, especially a doe, is prey to wolves.” I swallow thickly. “She was away from her home and clearly shifting in secret. What if one of their pups came upon her… what if?—”
He squeezes my shoulder. “Trust is easily given and a thousand times harder to mend when broken. Her parent’s trust was broken through no fault of yours or mine. But I am the king and Master Stag, and you shall take up that mantle one day. We must take responsibility for failing our subjects as such. You believe in your heart saving her, bringing her to safety here is your duty?”
“I do,” I say. More so now than ever.
He nods. Accepting.
My father sent an envoy. Not wanting to betray their trust or expose them if they wished to remain secret, he did so in a circumspect way. The envoy followed the trail to their home only to find it abandoned. He was told that the family had fled in the night several weeks earlier, and no one knew where they had gone.
We had already betrayed their trust once, and at my father’s order, the envoy did not disclose what they were.
I searched for her for many weeks and months between my duties as the prince. When I was not searching for my lost Fawn, I threw myself into battle.
Perhaps it would make no sense to an outsider or one who does not believe in the will of the Goddess, but meeting her, as I did on my coming-of-age quest, felt significant to me.
It felt like destiny.
Like Fawn was mine to protect.
When I received the letter from her mother explaining that the secret fawn was now all grown up and vulnerable, I knew instantly who it was, and a different kind of pull lodged in my chest.
The wolf is railing, fighting against inevitability. He is delusional if he thinks I will bow out… that I will not pursue my claim, one the Goddess herself placed in my path all those years ago.
I am Master Stag. Not the leader of a herd, but the leader of all herds.
My father died five years ago in the great battle for Estoria, supporting the fairy kingdom against the dark fae. I fought at his side, and although we were victorious, we paid a high price in his life.
Somewhere above, sitting at the Goddess’s side, I believe my father, who ever saw the humor in things, is chuckling as he watches me go head-to-head with a pack enforcer to complete a promise I made.